Politically I am an Independent.
I was Democrat for years by default based on family. Then it was the better party because of support for legitimate civil rights.
I went Republican for a few years but the party orchestrates the closing of voting locations for no good reason.
I left the Democratic Party because it had/has the nerve to write support for abortion for any reason in its platform. Now they seemingly promoting it until birth. WOW.
I support abortion only in those rare cases where there is an un-resolveable severely abnormal pregnancy.
The case of the 2026 surrogate mother McKenna West shows some severely abnormal pregnancies have opportunity to be resolved. Apparently it was no major risk to the biologlical mother’s life if any risk at all.
The baby was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLH)
Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) is a rare, severe congenital heart defect where the left side of the heart does not develop properly during pregnancy. Because the left side of the heart is responsible for pumping oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body, a baby born with HLHS cannot naturally pump blood through systemic circulation.
Children with HLHS can survive to various ages once birthed. This requires a number of progressive surgeries. Typically, without an eventual heart transplant death occurs.
Because the corrective surgery for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS)—the three-stage reconstruction known as the Norwood procedure—was only developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Dr. William Norwood, the oldest living people with HLHS are currently in their late 30s to early 40s.
Prior to the early 1980s, HLHS was nearly 100% fatal within the first few weeks of life.
As technology improves I suspect more children will be a ble to survive much longer and hopefully as normal as everyone else.
As to who should get the baby, I think the biological parents has rights that exceed that of the surrogate mother due to contractual agreement. The California Courts have already determined that in another case Cook v. Harding, Case No. 2:16-cv-00742-ODW in 2016. In that case the surrogate mother Melissa Cook was asked by the Father to abort one of the triplets she was carrying. She refused and gave birth to the triplets. She sought custody of the one the Father wanted aborted. After going all the way to the US Supreme Court the Father was awarded and received all three.
California couple confront their surrogate in a Texas court as dispute over newborn escalates
Texas surrogacy, abortion dispute leads to birth of baby with heart defect
California couple’s surrogate gives birth in Texas after judge orders life-saving care
